Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for modeling objects on a computer. More particularly, the invention relates to forming and utilizing bending maps for object design, wherein the object may later be made through additive manufacturing.
Description of the Related Technology
Object design and manufacturing of objects are used to create necessary tools for a number of different industries. For example, parts, tools, etc. may be designed and manufactured for use in all aspects of everyday life. The process of designing and manufacturing such objects, however, can be time intensive and expensive. For example, traditional manufacturing techniques may require a prototype be designed and built, molds created based on the design, drilling and cutting of components, and other time consuming and expensive techniques to create a single object. There may be economies of scale when making subsequent objects identical to the initially designed object as molds, etc. can be reused. However, for one off objects, no such economies of scale are gained.
Accordingly, traditional manufacturing techniques are ill suited for generating one off or customized objects, such as, surgical implants specifically designed for a patient, prototypes, etc. Processes such as additive manufacturing (e.g., 3D printing), can overcome such limitations by reducing the time and cost of creating an object.
Additive manufacturing can be defined as a group of techniques used to fabricate a tangible model of an object typically using three-dimensional (3-D) computer aided design (CAD) data of the object. Currently, a multitude of Additive Manufacturing techniques is available, including stereolithography, Selective Laser Sintering, Fused Deposition Modeling, foil-based techniques, etc.
Selective laser sintering uses a high power laser or another focused heat source to sinter or weld small particles of plastic, metal, or ceramic powders into a mass representing the 3-dimensional object to be formed.
Fused deposition modeling and related techniques make use of a temporary transition from a solid material to a liquid state, usually due to heating. The material is driven through an extrusion nozzle in a controlled way and deposited in the required place as described among others in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,680.
Foil-based techniques fix coats to one another by means of gluing or photo polymerization or other techniques and cut the object from these coats or polymerize the object. Such a technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,539.
Typically additive manufacturing techniques start from a digital representation of the 3-D object to be formed. Generally, the digital representation is sliced into a series of cross-sectional layers which can be overlaid to form the object as a whole. The additive manufacturing apparatus uses this data for building the object on a layer-by-layer basis. The cross-sectional data representing the layer data of the 3-D object may be generated using a computer system and computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software. Traditional CAD/CAM software may require significant skill to properly design a 3-D object and can require time consuming techniques and computations to generate the digital representation of the 3-D object. Accordingly, improved systems and techniques are needed for generating the digital representation of the 3-D object.